HOW TO LOVE GOD

Mark 12:30

Morning Meditation 12/9/2013

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

This verse records the answer of Christ to a question asked by one of the scribes. They asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"

I was asked the question by a friend, "How do we love God." Well, the question made me search my own heart. Love is an easy theological discussion but not as easy when one asks, "Do you love God with all you heart and soul?

THE FLESH CANNOT BE MADE TO PLEASE GOD

First of all we cannot make the flesh love God. I find myself trying to train the flesh to be holy and to serve God and I always fail. The reason being that the flesh is at war with the Spirit and when it does a good deed, it comes out as self-righteous.

Rom. 8:7 says, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Paul does not say that it is difficult to make the carnal (fleshly) mind please God, it is impossible. But in spite of the fact that we know this, we will still try to make it serve God. This applies to loving God also. We try to make the flesh love God. When one approaches it from the standpoint of the flesh, there must be an imminent reason for doing so, i.e., God has blessed me financially or in some way and the flesh loves Him for it. However, when sickness comes or financial loss comes, then we do not understand why God could let this happen to us because if He really loved us, He would do something about this.

LOVING GOD IS A CHOICE

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." God has demanded love from us. A command asks for a choice. We can either commit ourselves to love God or refuse to.

LOVING GOD IS A RESPONSE

1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because he first loved us." John says our Love for God is a response on our part. We love Him because He first loved us.

So if we are to love God we must examine His love to us. We do this by going to the Scripture. In the Scripture we find God's love for us. He tell us that He loves us and what He has done to prove it.

LOVING GOD IS A WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Romans 5:5 says, "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

This love comes to us at the new birth. But it must be maintained by our continual dependence on the Holy Spirit to continue that work in us. It is possible for this love to grow cold. Matthew 24:12 says, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." When we cannot do anything about the iniquity that abounds all around us, we will grow cold if we do not keep ourselves in the Love of God. Jude 1:21 says, "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

LOVING GOD IS MAKING HIS FRIENDS OUR FRIENDS

John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Loving one another is not as easy as it seems. We hold one another to our standards, and when a brother or sister does not meet our standard we begin to withdraw. Then you wake up one day and you discover that you don't even like them much less love them.

LOVING GOD IS KEEPING HIS WORD DILIGENTLY

John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." This will keep us in the Word of God continually. It is in the Scripture that our Lord commands us. There will be no love on our part if we do not keep an open Bible.

LOVING GOD IS LISTENING FOR HIM TO SPEAK

Philippians 2:12-13, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Our Love for God must be the work of the Holy Spirit within. We must learn to listen to that "still small voice" and obey immediately if His love is made real to us and our love for Him expressed to others.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White